naturalism

noun

• 1(in art and literature) a style and theory of representation based on the accurate depiction of detail.

  The name “Naturalism” was given to a 19th-century artistic and literary movement, influenced by contemporary ideas of science and society, that rejected the idealization of experience and adopted an objective and often uncompromisingly realistic approach to art. Notable figures include the novelist Zola and the painter Théodore Rousseau

• 2a philosophical viewpoint according to which everything arises from natural properties and causes, and supernatural or spiritual explanations are excluded or discounted.

  [translating French naturalisme]
• (in moral philosophy) the theory that ethical statements can be derived from nonethical ones.
• another term for natural religion.